On Monday, the Prince George’s County Council approved rezoning plans for a 37-acre mixed-use project in Riverdale Park, Md., reported the Washington Business Journal.

The $226 million development, backed by the Cafritz family, will essentially create a town center along Route 1 (map). It will be anchored by a Whole Foods and will bring 995 residential units, including 120 townhomes, 600 apartments, 224 senior housing units and a 120-room hotel to the area.

In February, the County’s Planning Board approved the plans after fifteen hours of deliberation. Monday’s meeting was not without controversy; according to the Business Journal, though the plans passed 7-2, several council members were reluctant to throw their support behind the project and are worried about traffic flow and the plan’s general conflicts with long-term planning principles.

Cafritz is hoping for an early 2013 groundbreaking. The project will take up to nine years to complete.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/cafritz_project_at_riverdale_park_moving_ahead/5747

5 Comments

jag said at 2:17 pm on Tuesday July 10, 2012:

Seems like such a complete waste to clear-cut this forest when every single metro station in PG is severely underutilized and could use something like this within walking distance.

This is about 1.5 miles away from PG plaza metro which is full of surface parking and half-vacant residential (or 100% vacancy, in one building’s case which was built in 2006 or so). It’s as if PG continuously goes out of its way to avoid bringing together a critical mass of residents that’d spawn further development, vibrancy, and tax dollars.

What a joke and such a shame those metro stations were wasted on such a dysfunctional section of the state.

TheRedFerrari said at 3:51 pm on Tuesday July 10, 2012:

@jag

The PG Plaza Metro station has NO surface parking. You also contradict yourself by saying development should be focused at M stations, but at the same time point out the high vacancy rates at PG Plaza (which is very questionable, since UTC seems to be doing moderately well).

Anyway while it would have been better if this project would have been located near(er) to a transit station, it’s still within walking distance of College Park and the Council would have been out of their minds to turn down desperately needed development of this scale.

Tree-hugger/NIMBY morons such as yourself are a large part of the reason PG County is lagging behind it’s neighbors in development.

jag said at 4:16 pm on Tuesday July 10, 2012:

HA. I really hope that was a very long joke.

PG Plaza is surrounded by thousands upon thousands of surface parking spaces.

UTC honestly could not be worse off. Half of One Independence Plaza is still vacant and they’ve been selling for 5 years now. There’s another building, Plaza Lofts, that has been completely vacant since finishing construction years and years ago.

All of this is due to PG’s standard horrific lack of planning. It’s called having a critical mass of people - you and PG leadership have no concept of what that is or looks like. Of course UTC should EASILY be flourishing, but instead there are a couple of nice buildings surrounded by acres and acres of surface parking and junk 60s builds. Of course that’s not going to be successful, and PG has proven it over and over again in dozens of floundering redevelopments across the county.

Add this development (Whole Foods, townhomes, etc.) and stick it with the other development around PG Plaza (condos, apartments, student housing, retail) and you exponentially increase the value and chance of success. Instead, PG continues to build a bunch of relatively nice, tiny islands in seas of junk that never create a critical mass of people or interest.

Oh, and grow up.

JoeEsq74 said at 10:19 am on Wednesday July 11, 2012:

jag - PG Plaza already has major new development in pipeline. Is was described here a month ago.

The Metro station has garage parking…the mall has surface parking so you are both correct

Independence Plaza - I am GUESSING that buyers are having financing problems with financing. Economic downturn may have lead condos into foreclosure which makes condo financing difficult, I acknowledge I am speculating. I agree Plaza Lofts appears to be a complete dud. Arts District was also hurt by economy but seems to be back on track Bus Boys, YES etc.

“dozens of floundering redevelopments across the county” National Harbor and the development around Wegmans seem to be healthy. The Whole Foods is big deal for the county. I think Prince Georges County Specifically, Hyattesville needs to â€˜marketâ€™ itself better as a less expensive close-in alternative to young buyers interested in DC but priced out. I am not drinking the PG Kool Aid but I do think this is going to be a success.

jag said at 10:51 am on Wednesday July 11, 2012:

Indeed, that new development is great news. I think a 15 year build out is a bit optimistic, but we’ll have to wait and see!